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Patients’ rights to life-prolonging treatment were boosted last week by a landmark High Court ruling, writes Amy Taylor.

Leslie Burke, who has a degenerative brain condition, sought clarification over when artificial nutrition and hydration can be lawfully withdrawn fearing that his wish to die naturally could be overridden by doctors under existing General Medical Council guidance.

The court ruled that Burke and anybody else who asked for life-prolonging treatment should have their wishes met unless the patient had “lapsed into a coma”, lacking all awareness of what was happening.

It also ruled that if a patient was incompetent and had not expressed any prior view, doctors should only stop life prolonging treatment if the patient would view their life to be “intolerable” if prolonged

The Disability Rights Commission said the intolerability test – already used by the courts – was set much higher than current GMC guidelines.

Burke’s solicitor Paul Conrathe added that the judgement represented a “significant shift in the balance of power away from the doctor to the patient and from the medical profession to the courts”.